By Omar Anderson , Gleaner WriterCHAIRMAN OF the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Bruce Golding is said to be coming "under fire" from his party colleagues, who reportedly have been chiding him for "walking back into the party and talking too much."
Sources present at the JLP's Standing Committee held Monday night into early yesterday morning, said the problem has to do with a story published in The Sunday Gleaner, in which both Mr. Golding, the party's spokesman on foreign affairs, and Delroy Chuck, spokesperson on justice, endorsed the Prime Minister's move ordering the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to make periodic reports to Parliament.
"Some party officers felt that what they said was not the party's official position," one source noted. "But Mr. Golding said if he and
Delroy have been speaking consistently on the matter for so long, if that is not the party's position, then what is it?"
One source pointed out that since Mr. Golding's re-entry into the party, the JLP had carved out a position on the operation of the DPP's office during a meeting led by Senator Dorothy Lightbourne. However, it is understood that the JLP's position might not have been communicated to Standing Committee member and attorney-at-law Abe Dabdoub, who has differed with Mr. Golding and Mr. Chuck on the operation of the DPP's office.
Gleaner sources said Mr. Dabdoub, who is overseas, wrote a letter in which he reportedly chastised Mr. Golding for speaking on legal matters for which he is "not trained".
"He said he was concerned that Bruce was speaking on any and everything in the party," said the source.
But contacted on Tuesday, Mr. Golding told The Gleaner he has been assigned to speak on finance in the Senate, and it was not his understanding it was only there he is allowed to speak on such matters.
"What I'm careful to do is not to make a statement which conflicts with the official position of the party and the position of Mr. Shaw who is the official spokesperson on finance," he said.
Mr. Dabdoub had sent a letter to the press on Monday in which he claimed Sunday's utterances of Mr. Golding and Mr. Chuck were inconsistent with the party's official position on the DPP's office.
